In surprise, unemployment benefits advance — In a surprise, several Senate Republicans on Tuesday morning joined with Democrats to break the filibuster of a bill to extend unemployment benefits for three months. — By 60-37, Senate Democrats secured the votes needed to advance the bill …

Burglars Who Took On F.B.I. Abandon Shadows — Stealing J. Edgar Hoover's Secrets: One night in 1971, files were stolen from an F.B.I. office near Philadelphia. They proved that the bureau was spying on thousands of Americans. The case was unsolved, until now.

Angry Dennis Rodman defends North Korea basketball game — (CNN) — Basketball star Dennis Rodman defended his controversial visit to North Korea with a team of former NBA players in a combative exchange Tuesday, saying it was a “great idea for the world.” — In an exclusive interview …

Republicans Really Could Win It All This Year — A definitive guide to the 2014 elections from our new columnist. … Another midterm election beckons, and over the next 10 months we'll see headlines about a thousand supposedly critical developments—the “game changers” and the “tipping points.”

Senate Conversations: Paul Broun ‘Fighting For Liberty’ — The primary race for Georgia's open U.S. Senate seat heats up in the first weeks of 2014 with the election looming May 20. — For Rep. Paul Broun (R-Athens), the race is all about liberty. — “What I'm fighting for is liberty.

Rachel Maddow Is Crazy, Too — MSNBC has had a hard time lately. The network fired Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin for craziness, on-air and off-air respectively. Melissa Harris-Perry was forced to apologize, first on Twitter and then, tearfully, on the air, for making political hay out of Mitt Romney's adopted grandson.

In New Year, Half Are Looking Forward to Midterm Elections — More Republicans than Democrats Are Anticipating Midterms — As 2014 begins and the midterm election campaigns heat up, about half of the public (51%) is especially looking forward to November's congressional elections while 49% are not looking forward to them.

Why Women Aren't Welcome on the Internet — “Ignore the barrage of violent threats and harassing messages that confront you online every day.” That's what women are told. But these relentless messages are an assault on women's careers, their psychological bandwidth, and their freedom to live online.

What the heck is a polar vortex? — (CNN) — Americans in two dozen states from the Midwest to the Southeast and Northeast are shivering this week courtesy of a distorted polar vortex. The rush of cold air it's sending southward is the biggest visitor from the North Pole since Santa Claus.

3 Amtrak Trains With Hundreds of Passengers Stranded Since Monday — About 500 passengers aboard three Amtrak trains were stranded overnight in a remote part of northern Illinois because of blowing and drifting snow, Amtrak officials said today. — The trains were halted late Monday near Mendota, about 80 miles west of Chicago.

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